A Modest (and Realistic) Proposal

Jonah Goldberg has an idea for how President Obama can jumpstart the American economy.Drill, Baby, Drill!

President Obama is fond of saying that we need to look to China’s example. They’re allegedly leading the way on solar and wind power. Maybe that’s true, though I think there’s a lot of hype there. But okay. What people leave out is that China is hardly curbing its fossil-fuel development.Why can’t America have a similar do-it-all strategy?

As part of a grand bargain, the president could, in his State of the Union address, propose quintupling the amount of money we spend doing basic research on alternative fuels, the revocation of subsidies for the oil and gas industry, and a hike in the gas tax to pay for that infrastructure bank he wants. Throw in a ban on mountaintop-removal coal mining while he’s at it. All of this in exchange for creating good jobs here at home, lowering energy costs, reducing our reliance on foreign oil, and cutting the deficit.

Sure, the base of the Democratic party and the editorial board of the New York Times would scream bloody murder. But for a guy trying to get reelected, that’s a bonus.

Drill baby, drill. Start building nuke power plants. How many jobs would be created if we could get 30 or 40 Nuke plants started? I would prefer 300 to 400 of them, but gotta start somewhere! And put some wind mills up on top of the steam vent towers while you're at it. Cover the south side of them with solar panels ;)